Shuttle Challenge v5 - The STS thread [Stock and Mod Friendly] - MAJOR CHALLENGE ANNOUNCEMENT! - 30.3.2020

[hoioh]

3 minutes ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

Phew, lucky me

Yep, that's the magic of screenshots I'm recording my flights so I don't have to bother about making screenshots while maneuvering a shuttle, so if you are curious how the flight really looks, I'll upload it for you  

Let's have it then! I wanna see you struggle! 

[4x4cheesecake]

2 minutes ago, hoioh said:

Let's have it then! I wanna see you struggle! 

Well, I have 13GB of struggeling and 2GB with the successfull mission...and I'm pretty sure I already delete some of the struggeling parts^^
Anyway, I have to mute the video so youtube doesn't claim a copyright on the music I'm listening to. I'll PM you as soon as it is muted and uploaded

[hoioh]

36 minutes ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

Well, I have 13GB of struggeling and 2GB with the successfull mission...and I'm pretty sure I already delete some of the struggeling parts^^
Anyway, I have to mute the video so youtube doesn't claim a copyright on the music I'm listening to. I'll PM you as soon as it is muted and uploaded

Just dunk it in here, I'm sure others want to learn how you did it as well

[4x4cheesecake]

1 hour ago, hoioh said:

I'm sure others want to learn how you did it as well

Too many good videos out there, I'm shy

But if someone really wants to see it....
I'm not a profi video editor...not even an amateur...and the video is not recorded to be shown to others, so no fancy camera tools  
Sound is muted in both videos, you have to listen to your own^^

Here is the actual mission (after watching it again...it's not too bad at all):

And you guys want something to laugh, so here are some of my fails Unfortunately, some of my best crashes are already delete, sry...

If someone will notice: Yes, during the last two crashes I had 'infinite fuel' enabled because I wanted to save the crew and was no longer able to revert the flight...

[hoioh]

@4x4cheesecake

Your final looks great! It's also nice to see it wasn't easy to get it in that smooth

The most noticeable thing is the lack of pitch authority, which is why I added the canard to my own design. Makes it much more pleasing to fly!

[4x4cheesecake]

29 minutes ago, hoioh said:

@4x4cheesecake

Your final looks great! It's also nice to see it wasn't easy to get it in that smooth

The most noticeable thing is the lack of pitch authority, which is why I added the canard to my own design. Makes it much more pleasing to fly!

Thanks

For me, it was the hardest challenge so far and took me a lot of time to do this (I already tried it when I started these challenges months ago...).

And yes...the canards saved the mission for me as well. Initially, I just increased the pitch authority on the elevons but the results were pretty bad. Putting some canards in the front instead results in a orbiter which is actually enjoyable to fly
On the other hand...look at my very first crash in the 'fail' video: the approach actually looks really good and I was surprised when everything exploded. So I spent most of the time trying to land the orbiter with its bulky behaviour, thinking that I'm just a bad pilot, instead of improving the orbiter. Basically, the biggest issue was me beeing stubborn

Edited August 21, 2018 by 4x4cheesecake

[hoioh]

4 minutes ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

Thanks

For me, it was the hardest challenge so far and took me a lot of time to do this (I already tried it when I started these challenges months ago...).

And yes...the canards saved the mission for me as well. Initially, I just increased the pitch authority on the elevons but the results were pretty bad. Putting some canards in the front instead results in a orbiter which is actually enjoyable to fly
On the other hand...look at my very first crash in the 'fail' video: the approach actually looks really good and I was surprised when everything exploded. So I spent most of the time trying to land the orbiter with its bulky behaviour, thinking that I'm just a bad pilot, instead of improving the orbiter. Basically, the biggest issue was me beeing stubborn

Increasing the authority just turns it into an airbrake causing it to stall.

I am amazed there's actualy multiple people that managed to successfully fly the real thing! It basically handles like a brick. And the speeds they landed the thing at, not a feable feat!

[4x4cheesecake]

22 minutes ago, hoioh said:

Increasing the authority just turns it into an airbrake causing it to stall.

It helped me during the 'catch an astroid' mission but in this case: yes, just an airbreak^^

22 minutes ago, hoioh said:

I am amazed there's actualy multiple people that managed to successfully fly the real thing! It basically handles like a brick. And the speeds they landed the thing at, not a feable feat!

Do you know this video? It's just crazy

edit: Actually, this one explains it a bit more: https://youtu.be/Jb4prVsXkZU?t=818

 

Edited August 21, 2018 by 4x4cheesecake

[Artienia]

I know this sounds crazy but is Realfuels allowed? No Fuels other than LFO etc, so no fancy Liquid Hydrogen etc. Just having realfuels , no new fuels.

Edited August 22, 2018 by Artienia

[Artienia]

On 7/14/2018 at 6:02 AM, iAMtheWALRUS said:

STS-9 completed.  Mission report here..

My goal is no redesign, and Bahamut is set up with the main cargo bay facing down, so I had to go bowling on the lawn to get the asteroid down.

 

What mod did you use to display Com and Col?

[Artienia]

Artemis I Shuttle Launch and Landing for STS-1

Highlights:

This was really hard to do, especially the re-entry. Half of the Elevons and the Taillfin overheats every time, but this is not detremental for the Artemis I™ shuttle. 
Other difficulty was Liftoff, but if Mechjeb is allowed (Except on asccent, but doesn't matter because i didn't use it) than TCA would be allowed, which is doing the same as MC; mmaking your life easier.
It simply controlls the power of your engines so you don't flip. The ascent is all manual as always.
Also the Shuttle is a little differant than the classic Buran-Style ships because why not. It is relatively stable in reentry.

 

[Kerbolitto]

4 hours ago, Artienia said:

This was really hard to do, especially the re-entry. Half of the Elevons and the Taillfin overheats every time, but this is not detremental for the Artemis I™ shuttle. 

Other difficulty was Liftoff, but if Mechjeb is allowed (Except on asccent, but doesn't matter because i didn't use it) than TCA would be allowed, which is doing the same as MC; mmaking your life easier.
It simply controlls the power of your engines so you don't flip. The ascent is all manual as always.
Also the Shuttle is a little differant than the classic Buran-Style ships because why not. It is relatively stable in reentry.

Very cool design, with a proper ramp !

But is your orbiter a SSTO ? If I remember correctly you have to stage the lifter !

9.  SSTO's are not eligable for entry to the challenge

Also why did you choose to use whiplashes (heavy !) and mk3 control surface (heat resistance) ?

Edited August 24, 2018 by Kerbolitto

[Artienia]

51 minutes ago, Kerbolitto said:

Very cool design, with a proper ramp !

But is your orbiter a SSTO ? If I remember correctly you have to stage the lifter !

9.  SSTO's are not eligable for entry to the challenge

Also why did you choose to use whiplashes (heavy !) and mk3 control surface (heat resistance) ?

1) It is not an ssto, as it separates multiple times. There is no limit how far your Launch System can go, and this was confirmed by don.

mk3 Elevons? I do not know where you got that idea because i used fatwings. Although next-gen shuttles for next mission do have mk3 elevons in tthem
I choose whiplashes because they (in the stats) gave the most thrust. can switch them though.
The rammp will be used to deliver space stations and orbital outposts

[4x4cheesecake]

@Artienia That's a really cool shuttle with an unsual design, I like it Haven't seen many front-loaded vehicles yet.

2 minutes ago, Artienia said:

mk3 Elevons? I do not know where you got that idea because i used fatwings.

The fatwings are the mk3 elevons

59 minutes ago, Kerbolitto said:

But is your orbiter a SSTO ? If I remember correctly you have to stage the lifter !

9.  SSTO's are not eligable for entry to the challenge

I don't see any problems here...the lifter got staged and I'm pretty sure that the rule applies to horizontal launching SSTOs. Otherwise I might have to return my Mun badge, because my new orbiter CAN actually reach orbit on its own (without any payload) xD

[Artienia]

1 minute ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

@Artienia That's a really cool shuttle with an unsual design, I like it Haven't seen many front-loaded vehicles yet.

The fatwings are the mk3 elevons

I don't see any problems here...the lifter got staged and I'm pretty sure that the rule applies to horizontal launching SSTOs. Otherwise I might have to return my Mun badge, because my new orbiter CAN actually reach orbit on its own (without any payload) xD

Oh i didn't know that. Well i regretted using that anyways because it was heavy, gave very little lift and always exploded during reentry
 

[4x4cheesecake]

2 minutes ago, Artienia said:

Oh i didn't know that. Well i regretted using that anyways because it was heavy, gave very little lift and always exploded during reentry
 

Yeah, they are made to be used wihting the atmosphere, not to leave it. Try the Big-S-Elevons instead, they are way more heat resistant

How does your descent trajectory look like? If you apporach the KSC in a steep angle, you will always have parts that will explode by overheating, i.e. RCS thruster.

[Artienia]

1 minute ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

Yeah, they are made to be used wihting the atmosphere, not to leave it. Try the Big-S-Elevons instead, they are way more heat resistant

How does your descent trajectory look like? If you apporach the KSC in a steep angle, you will always have parts that will explode by overheating, i.e. RCS thruster.

You know crater lake? I break there...

[4x4cheesecake]

7 minutes ago, Artienia said:

You know crater lake? I break there...

I know the lake, it is the same location I start breaking as well

You probably just need find a good pitch angle for your orbiter. I remember the heat problem from my first SSTOs and Shuttles but the heat became less a problem with every flight (without any major changes on my crafts).

I hope we'll see more flights of your Shuttle

Edited August 24, 2018 by 4x4cheesecake

[Artienia]

1 minute ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

I know the lake, it is the same location I start breaking as well

You probably just need find a good pitch angle for your orbiter. I remember the heat problem from my first SSTOs and Shuttles but the heat became less a problem with every flight (without any major changes on my crafts).

I hope we'll see more flights of your Shuttle

Making the Payload missions now. I already did it but reentry was always very weird and mmy plane always got flipped

[4x4cheesecake]

I just performed a beautiful landing which amazed me so much, I have to share it

 

(4x speed up until the final approach)

[Agent Awesome]

Nice landing

I would look at how nose heavy you’re ship is

you were using a lot of rcs to keep it flying and it might be a problem later on

but still, Nice work

[4x4cheesecake]

37 minutes ago, Agent Awesome said:

Nice landing

I would look at how nose heavy you’re ship is

you were using a lot of rcs to keep it flying and it might be a problem later on

but still, Nice work

Thanks

Actually, I don't need the RCS thruster to fly the orbiter through the atmosphere but I had too much fuel left. The shuttle is designed to deliver a 50t payload to the surface of the Mun but I used it this time for a delivery to LKO without taking out any fuel so the orbiter was stll pretty heavy and the RCS thruster helped to minimize the turn radius

[4x4cheesecake]

michal.don needs something to do when he return from his holidays, so lets continue doing challenges

Here's my entry for:

STS-3T: Cassini-Huygens

I managed to visit every Jool moon and still had plenty of fuel left in the probe. For design purposes, I've added 'DMagic Orbital Science' to my mods and put some science stuff on the probe (i.e. Magnetometer). Maybe, you'll notice an empty 'Ore' bar in my ressource window, that's because I've added a small empty ore tank to the Huygens lander to increase the buoyancy
The whole imgur album contains 54 pictures, I'll just post the highlights here

Cassini probe (Mass: 2,023t):

Spoiler

Huygens lander (Mass 1,050t):

Spoiler

Combined, straped on a transfer stage and put into the shuttle:

Spoiler

The actual mission:

Spoiler

I'm using my biggest shuttle, I have to train flying this beast^^

Lift-off:

Staging the boosters:

Getting rid of the ET:

Deploy the probe:

Return to the KSC:

Landed (video of the landing, also postet above):

Transferburn of the probe:

Encounter with Tylo:

Deploy the Huygens lander:

Encounter with Laythe:

Huygens lander entering Laythes atmosphere:

Landed

Doing some researching on the Jool rings:

Encounter with Vall:

Encounter with Bob:

Encounter with Pol:

An additional encounter with Tylo to set up an crash trajectory with Jool:

Finishing the mission with a nice explosion:)

Imgur Album: https://imgur.com/a/yPfCUCZ

If you are interested in the planned trajectories and deltaV numbers, the album contains pictures of every maneuver

Edited August 25, 2018 by 4x4cheesecake

[hoioh]

11 hours ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

I just performed a beautiful landing which amazed me so much, I have to share it
- snip -

(4x speed up until the final approach)

What an awesome space bus it is! It really resembles you landing a proper american school bus 

[Artienia]

Artemis I-b and Artemis II-b Shuttle Launch

Highlights I-b:

Highlights II-b:

Here it is as i promised, Artemis I-b and II-b Missions with a 41 ton custom-fit pod.

This mission took me a lot longer than the previous (obv), around 2 days of irritation (mainly during reentry, this craft was a lot less stable than Artemis I
The easiest part of the mission was docking; to my suprise. Randevou was pretty easy too. The mod fit perfectly into the cargo ramp (which i feared wouldn't be case) on the first try. i have done a lot of docking but this was the easiest by far. Returning the Pod (Art II-b) was kind of hard as the plane was 40t heavier, and had a bad time flying

 

Edited August 25, 2018 by Artienia